Sherman Alexie: Drive is on to supply copies of his young adult novel to students in Idaho school district which banned it from the curriculum. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Photo by Mike Urban)
Two young Washington state women are launching an effort to get copies of Sherman Alexie’s young adult novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,” into the hands of teenagers in an Idaho school district that banned the book from its high school curriculum.
They are partnering with a teacher at Centennial High School in Meridian, Idaho; the school librarian; and a student who spoke up in defense of Alexie’s novel. The semi-autobiographical novel tells of a 14-year-old Native American boy’s experience in an almost all-white high school.
The Meridian School Board voted 2-1 to exclude the book after parents objected to use of cuss words and references in the book to masturbation.
“The book is by a local author, it takes place partly in Idaho, deals with bullying and racial issues, it is fitting. We were encouraged to see teachers speak out, and 350 students sign a petition, so . . . if they can’t have the book in their curriculum, let students read it on their free time. Let’s give ‘em the book,” said Sara Baker, a University of Washington student.
She and friend Jennifer Lott of Spokane hope to pull off their book-buying plan in time for the Alexie books to be distributed on April 23, World Book Night.
“So far, between donated copies and donated dollars, we have about 25 books collected,” said Baker. “Our goal is 100 but, ideally, we would like to have a copy for each of the 350 students who signed the petition.”
Baker and Lott are working with Stacy Lacy, a teacher who spoke out against the ban, and Brady Kissel, a student who presented 350 student signatures asking that “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” stay in the curriculum.
“It doesn’t seem like such a huge issue but censorship is something I’m very passionate about,” Kissel said in an email.
Those who wish to bypass the ban can send copies of Alexie’s book to Stacy Lacy, 12400 W. McMillan Road, Boise, ID 83713.
Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and later went to largely white schools. The 14-year-old lead character in “Diary,” a native boy named Arnold Spirit, shares many of Alexie’s own experiences as a young boy.
The novel won a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and also captured the American Library Association’s 2009 Odyssey Award for the best new audio book for children and young adults. It received glowing praise in The New York Times Book Review.
Alexie now lives in Seattle. He has written fiction and non-fiction as well as screenplays.
SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwired – Apr 14, 2014) – Yesterday the S’Klallam Tribe in Washington State, joined by pro skateboarders Ryan Sheckler and David Reyes, unveiled their new skatepark with a ceremony and tribal feast for hundreds of Native Americans. This is the first skatepark on the reservation, and it was made possible by the Sheckler Foundation’s first-ever “Be the Change” project. The youth of the S’Klallam Tribe submitted their cause for a new skatepark and received the most votes for their plans to build a much-needed skatepark and basketball court in their community. See the festivities of this historic event for yourself on video here: http://youtu.be/o_UnBYiOaj0
The demo by Ryan Sheckler (pictured above) and David Reyes was a highlight of the event.
Pro Skateboarder and Founder of the Sheckler Foundation, Ryan Sheckler says, “I am so blessed and stoked to skate alongside these kids and to be here for the grand opening of the skatepark. It’s unreal and rewarding to see how the community came together to ‘Be the Change’ and create a skatepark for the kids of the tribe.”
Left to right: The Sheckler Foundation’s Angelique Zaki, Kaitlyn from the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Ryan Sheckler and Sheckler Foundation CEO Gretchen Sheckler-Hachee.
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe was the Sheckler Foundation’s first “Be the Change” recipient in 2012 and the first phase of building the skatepark took off on August 27, 2012. After a year and a half of hard work the project is complete. This skatepark was built as a plaza with features for everyone from beginners to lifelong skateboarders. True to the S’Klallam roots the skatepark includes a mural by Native American artist, Louie Gong.
Quite a few kids from the S’Klallam community wanted a chance to meet Ryan and get an autograph during the festivities.
About The Sheckler Foundation: Founded in 2008, The Sheckler Foundation was created as an avenue for Ryan Sheckler, his family, friends and business associates to give back to the community and industry that they are so grateful for. Fueled by the desire to contribute to the many causes that directly benefit and enrich the lives of children and injured action sports athletes, The Sheckler Foundation will produce fundraising events, passion projects and web-based initiatives to raise capital and awareness. Our ultimate goal is to empower our community to “Be the Change!”
AP Photo/Redwood National and State Parks, Laura Denn Hacking off redwood burls leaves the tree open to infection, and eliminates its main means of reproduction.
Indian Country Today Media Network
The New York Times is raising the alarm on redwood poaching.
Redwoods that have stood like sentinels for a thousand years or more are being brutalized by poachers, their burls hacked off and sold. There have been at least 18 known cases of burl poaching from redwoods in the past year, forcing the closing of one California state highway at night, with more to follow.
“It’s not just a property crime,” said Brett Silver, supervising ranger for Redwood National and State Parks in California, to The New York Times. “It’s a legacy, like hacking up a church.”
This the Yurok certainly feel, regarding redwoods as “sacred living beings” that “stand as guardians over our sacred places,” the tribe says on its website.
Burls range in size from small enough to be crafted into salt and pepper shakers, as The New York Times points out, to large enough to weigh hundreds of pounds and be fashioned into furniture. The slabs of raw wood that are used to make furniture can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars each, The New York Times said.
In March, the National Park Service announced it would close the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at night to try and hamper the operations, which tend to be conducted under cover of darkness. While the poaching of wood in general is not new, a slow economy combined with an increase in methamphetamine use have made poachers bolder, the newspaper said.
“They have been targeting ever-bigger burls and using increasingly brazen tactics,” The New York Times reported. “Last year, a redwood estimated to be 400 years old was felled by thieves who wanted access to a 500-pound burl 60 feet up.”
Burls are essential to a redwood’s reproduction, the National Park Service said.
“Burl is a woody material full of un-sprouted bud tissue,” the NPS said in a leaflet about the trees. “It serves as a storage compartment for the genetic code of the parent tree. If the redwood falls or is damaged, the burl may sprout another redwood tree known as a clone.”
For someone who wants to drive from Darrington to Everett, each of the two available options takes about two hours.
One of them, however, is probably a lot easier on the car. There also are places to eat, talk on the phone and go to the bathroom.
Since the disastrous March 22 landslide that blocked Highway 530 east of Oso, most drivers have been using Highway 20 to get from Darrington to the I-5 corridor. This is the route recommended by the state Department of Transportation.
Four days after the slide, to create another option for drivers, the Mountain Loop Highway from Granite Falls to Darrington was opened for the season. The road is administered by Snohomish County.
Part of the Mountain Loop stretch was built on the former right-of-way of the Everett and Monte Cristo Railway, built in 1892 to haul gold copper, lead, and iron ores to smelters in Everett, according to HistoryLink.org. The tracks of the railroad were removed in 1932.
One section of the Mountain Loop Highway is a 14-mile, one-lane, gravel logging road. This stretch receives heavy snow and is closed every winter. The road was entirely shut down for four years, from 2003 to 2007, after it washed out in several places during a storm.
After the Oso slide, the state supplied snowblowers to open the road early for the year, county officials said.
The drive of 54 miles from Darrington to Granite Falls takes an hour and 40 minutes, according to the state. Add 20-plus minutes to Everett and it’s a little over two hours.
“Four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicles are strongly recommended,” according to a description of the road on a U.S. Forest Service website. It has a 5-ton weight limit and is considered unsuitable for commercial trucks or freight.
Don Beavon, of Tulalip, drove the Mountain Loop Highway in his 1992 Honda Civic the day it opened. He said he made it from downtown Marysville to Darrington in an hour and 45 minutes.
He used quote marks around the word “highway” in an email about his experience.
“It was very muddy with potholes and temporary 25-mile per hour speed limit signs posted all along the way,” Beavon wrote. “I bottomed out a couple of times but numerous double-long dump trucks full of gravel were heading in to make improvements, as was a heavy-duty roller.”
The smoother route takes drivers from Darrington north to Rockport on Highway 530, west to Burlington on Highway 20 and south to Everett via I-5.
This route is 94 miles, compared to 70 from Darrington to Everett via Mountain Loop, but drivers can cover the distance in roughly the same amount of time. There are no gas stations or other services on the Mountain Loop, according to the state.
Criticism over the NFL’s Washington Redskins’ logo reached an apex after owner Dan Snyder decided to continue using the name and created the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, the most recent controversy in a long line of spats over Native America names and images.
Such names and images have been part of the American culture for more than 100 years, and many prominent corporations and even the government use Native American names on everything from weapons (the Tomahawk Missile) to butter (Land O’ Lakes and its Native American mascot.) You can even insure your life with Mutual of Omaha, which uses an “Indian head” logo.
Here are some corporate logos that have phased out Native American images and names and others that continue to be marketed today.
General Motors
The radiator shell of all Pontiac cars through 1928 pictured Chief Pontiac and the original slogan, “Chief of the Sixes,” according to GM archives; other logos were used through the years, including a Pontiac car circling a globe and silhouettes of Chief Pontiac as a “warrior and statesman.”
GM executive Bunkie Knudsen phased out Pontiac’s “Indian Head” hood ornament in 1957, to be replaced by the stylized red “arrowhead” logo, according to a company history timeline from 2001. Pontiac was shut down as a brand in 2010.
James Keyser/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hornell Brewing’s Crazy Horse malt liquor is seen in this undated file image.
Back in 2001, the descendants of the Lakota Oglala leader Crazy Horse (or Tasunke Witko in Lakota) settled a defamation lawsuit involving Crazy Horse malt liquor, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
“Crazy Horse’s descendants filed suit eight years ago, trying to stop beer makers from using the chief’s name on an alcohol product that was distributed to 32 states,” MPR reported. “The opposition to Crazy Horse malt liquor came in part, because Crazy Horse had denounced the introduction of alcohol to American Indians.”
“We certainly never intended to offend anybody. We are indeed, deeply sorry for any offense we caused the Rosebud Sioux or any other Native American people,” John Stroh III, then chairman of SBC Holdings, formerly Stroh’s Brewing Co., then said according to MPR.
The company stopped using “Crazy Horse” as a brand.
SBC was later sold to Pabst Brewing Company and Miller Brewing Company.
Pabst did not respond to a request for comment.
Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Land O’Lakes Inc. is a member-owned cooperative, the second largest in the country, the firm says, after outdoor gear retailer R.E.I.
The company, which also owns Purina pet food and WinField agricultural and chemical products, has an eponymous butter product that uses a drawing of what the company calls an “Indian maiden.”
The company website states that “the now-famous Indian maiden” began as a painting in 1928.
“Reflecting the Native American heritage of the Upper Midwest, it showed an Indian maiden facing the viewer and holding a butter carton and surrounded by lakes, pines, flowers and grazing cows. That painting inspired a new design for the butter carton, and remained until the spring of 1939, when it was simplified and modernized by Jess Betlach, a nationally recognized illustrator. Decades later, with only minor changes, this design continues to capture the goodness and quality of LAND O LAKES brand dairy products from butter to cheese, deli cheese to foodservice sauces, school-lunch macaroni and cheese to dairy ingredients for other food processors.”
One now closed Change.org petition criticized the image for using stereotypes to create and sell products, with a “traditional buckskin outfit, two braids for her hair, and a head dress/band with one feather present.”
Land O’Lakes Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
Aaron Davidson/Getty Images
A view of a 2014 Jeep Cherokee at Miami International Auto Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center in this Nov. 9, 2013, file photo.
Chrysler revived the Jeep Cherokee, which had retired more than 10 years ago, as a 2014 model name.
That didn’t sit very well with Amanda Clinton, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma last summer.
“We are really opposed to stereotypes,” Clinton told the New York Times last June. “It would have been nice for them to have consulted us in the very least.”
In the same article, a spokesman for Chrysler explained to the Times that research showed an appeal for the name. “Our challenge was, as a brand, to link the past image to the present,” Jim Morrison, Jeep marketing director told the Times.
Chrysler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chirag Wakaskar/Getty Images
Indian Motorcycles, a subsidiary of the publicly-traded Polaris Industries Inc., calls itself America’s first motorcycle company, founded in 1901, according to the company website. The company markets motorcycles such as the Indian Chieftan, with a stylized “Indian” headdress logo, starting at $22,999. The Indian Chief Vintage and Classic, $20,999 and $18,999, simply have the company cursive script as a logo.
AP/5 GYRES In this February 15, 2010 photo released by 5 Gyres, a coastal area of the Azores Islands in Portugal, is shown littered with plastic garbage.
“Thus he learned that there are spirits in the water – that water is life.” – Wichita Legend of the Water Spirit
The tragedy of Malaysian flight 370, which disappeared en route to China, has brought attention to a distressing fact about our “civilized” society, that we are now drowning in our own garbage. For a full month, searchers have had to comb through an ocean full of waste, making an already extremely difficult task almost impossible. On March 8, the day after the plane was scheduled to land in Beijing, Vietnamese air force planes spotted two massive oil slicks, each between six and nine miles long, that were at first assumed to have been caused by the airliner, but when sampled turned out to be bunker oil for ships. The next day, the Vietnamese also spotted what they thought was a life raft and a door from the plane, but those items turned out to be floating junk.
Two days later, the Chinese reported that their satellites had spotted debris from the plane in the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam, but this too turned out to be more floating garbage. As the search shifted to the southern Indian Ocean, one of the most isolated and inhospitable regions on earth, satellites from several countries began to spot hundreds of objects, but all turned out to be floating waste. The amount of garbage in the oceans is so great and widespread that it was throwing off the search and rescue teams, and in the end they were forced to focus on analyzing the radar and electronic signals to narrow down the search area.
The pollution of the oceans, and of all water, is a serious threat to our well-being, for water, as indigenous people know well, is the essence of life. Yet civilized society has an almost complete disregard for clean water. Cholera, a disease unknown in the Americas before European settlement, derives from contaminated water. As the pioneers traveled westward, using rivers, streams and lakes as toilets (while at the same time drinking from them), the now contaminated waters killed countless Indians and nearly wiped out entire tribes, such as the Comanche, Hidatsa and Choctaw. More than 150,000 Americans are also believed to have died in the pandemics of 1832 and 1849, including former President James Polk. Due to cholera, Chicago had one of the highest death rates in the world between 1885 and 1890, losing more than 12 percent of its population.
Nor has time made civilized society any wiser. Up until 1970s, with the advent of clean water legislation in the U.S., the average American city sewage treatment plant consisted of a long pipe into the ocean, or lacking a nearby ocean, a lake or a river. It was also common to dump household garbage in the oceans or lakes. New York City dumped more than a million tons of garbage a year in the New York Bight, creating the first ocean “garbage patch.” An article in Indian Country Today Media Network one year ago, entitled, “Lake Erie has a Garbage Patch That Rivals the Oceans,” found that much more needs to be done to preserve Americas water.
Despite some strides in America to maintain clean water, other countries have done little. More than 818 million people in India and 607 million people in China have no sewage facilities at all.
Much of the debris floating in the oceans is plastic, which degrades extremely slowly and eventually becomes toxic to marine life. A 2006 United Nations Environment report estimated that every square kilometer of world’s ocean has an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on the surface. In the most polluted garbage patches, located in every ocean, the mass of plastic is greater than that of plankton, the algae upon which all oceanic life depends (the grass of the oceans), sometime by an order of five to six times. Experts believe that virtually every fish, sea turtle, or seabird now has plastic inside of it. Not only are the plastics toxic in themselves, they act like sponges, soaking up other toxins in the oceans. When devoured, the toxins work their way up the food chain, eventually impacting human health.
Parasitic diseases similar to cholera are now spreading to marine mammals such as killer whales, as the ocean waters become filled with human and animal excrement. Yet little is being done to combat this menace. The last international agreement concerning ocean dumping and pollution was a protocol signed in 1996, however it was not ratified by the U.S., nor has it been ratified by enough countries (there must be at least 26) to come into force. The last international marine debris conference, held 2011 in Honolulu, ended with no concrete program for international action.
It was long presumed that dumping in the ocean meant that pollution was out of sight, and thus could be ignored. But now the chickens, or their byproducts, are coming back to haunt our modern society. The search for Flight 370 may not have found the plane yet, but it may have discovered something far more important, and far more tragic.
Canadian-born Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is a living legend, famous for such Indigenous anthems as “Universal Soldier” and “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” But few know that Sainte-Marie led the earliest charge into electronic music at the same time she was being celebrated worldwide as a “folk” artist. She’s now preparing to make her first album since the award-winning 2008 relase Running For the Drum. Speaking from her current home in Hawaii, Sainte-Marie gave ICTMN the lowdown on the directon she’ll be heading with her new music. This is the second of a three-part series; for the first, which focused on her thoughts about the environment, see Buffy Sainte-Marie on Tar Sands: “You’ve Got to Take This Seriously”.Do you know when your new album is due to come out? Is there a title?We haven’t decided. I just spent three weeks out on the road in Nashville, Toronto and L.A. auditioning producers, so I have not yet made my choices. I don’t know if I’ll work with several producers or just one. But I’m sure excited about the music. We’re choosing from about 30 different songs. It’s going to be fun. It’ll be done when it’s done!
Your last album, of course, got a Juno as well as an Aboriginal People’s Choice Award (and around that time you were inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Fame) — in many ways, it was a departure from your other work in the immediacy of it.You think so? The songs, as always, were very diverse. I wasn’t worried about trying to make them all the same. Some of those songs I had in the can for a long time, and some were things I’d written over the years. I’d take something I’d written in my notebook in 1970 and I’ll add a second verse in 1980 and I’ll finish it last week. That’s always how it is for me – I have a kind of helicopter vision of life itself. I don’t think about calendars, deadlines or styles. I just play and sing whatever I dream up. Writing for me is just really, really natural. It’s the same as it was when I was a little kid. I hope I’m getting better though!
There’s an immediacy to your sound that really speaks to today. But you’ve always had that along the way. A lot of people were a little bit surprised hearing me with electronic sounds, but that’s because they maybe hadn’t heard about me for a while – so it might have been new to them, but it wasn’t new to me. In 1965, I made the first-ever electronic quadraphonic (four-channel) vocal album, Illuminations.
Is there anything about your new album people should look out for, in terms of style or subjects you’re addressing? Any surprises? It depends. Most people don’t listen to me, so they’re always surprised! (Laughs) Especially if they think I’m a folk singer. But people who have been listening all along will be surprised, because the whole world continues to grow. And that includes me and you. So it will be different. “The Uranium War” is one song, another is “Look at the Facts,” “Your Link with Life” is another. There’ll be some remixes… It’s a really interesting album. There’s some love songs on it, and some Aboriginal things, but mostly it’s just solid songs that are good to dance to or fun to listen to, or whatever.
One of your most famous songs, ‘Up Where We Belong,’ has really been turned into a love anthem. But it has such a special meaning for many Indigenous people, who can read it in a completely different way from non-Indigenous people. What are your thoughts on that? It’s a beautiful love song, but from the perspective of history suddenly it gives you a chill down your spine. I’m glad that it got to be the main theme for the film An Officer and a Gentleman, that’s about the military. Because sometimes people are surprised to see how many veterans come to my concerts, and to find out that soldiers in Vietnam were carving “Universal Soldier” into their bunk beds. If you think pacifists and military people hate each other, it’s not true. That’s just not accurate at all. The fact that “Up Where We Belong” – a love song that does have a real double-entendre meaning – was heard by so many people who don’t ordinarily come to hear me — how good is that? We always have to remain open to the fact that audiences are going to interpret your songs personally for themselves. I think that’s the true power of songs. It’s wonderful… Music has always been a powerful medium, and now with the Internet it can reach so many more people.
A pile of irrigation pipes in the Klamath. Tribal members in the Klamath Basin recently voted to approve a water sharing agreement with ranchers and other irrigators. | credit: Earthfix | rollover image for more
A Klamath Tribes vote for an upper Basin water management pact narrowly passed Wednesday.
According to Klamath Tribes Chairman Don Gentry, 564 Tribal members voted in favor, and 419 members voted against the Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement (UKBCA), which was released in March. Gentry said he wasn’t surprised by the close vote.
“This is a decision that will affect our people forever,” Gentry said. “We were concerned from the start because of the timeframe; we knew we had limited time to interact with our Tribal members.”
Three Tribal members released a formal statement earlier this week expressing frustration with the amount of time members had to review the 95-page agreement and mail in their ballots.
“The positive vote of our Tribal Members affirming the UKBCA is a monumental step in achieving the long-established goals of our people to restore and protect our Tribal fisheries and other treaty resources,” Gentry said in a statement.
Tribal approval brings stakeholders one step closer to introducing a comprehensive piece of legislation in Congress, ensuring upper Basin water needs are met for generations to come. Upper Basin stakeholders have been working for months as a subcommittee of the Klamath Basin Task Force appointed last July by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The 27-member task force was divided into three subcommittees focused on improving three areas of Klamath water use: developing a water management plan for the upper Klamath Basin, addressing the affordability of agricultural power rates and lowering federal costs for proposed settlements.
“With approval of the agreement, Sen. Wyden will now move forward to introduce a legislative package to enact the UKBCA. The bill will also include legislation of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA), which our members voted overwhelmingly to support,” Gentry said in a news release.
The 2010 KBRA settlement and the related KHSA seek to establish reliable water supplies and affordable power rates for irrigators, restore fish habitat, let the Klamath Tribes acquire the 92,000-acre Mazama Forest and remove four Klamath River dams.
“I certainly feel positive. I know this is a critical step in the right direction,” Gentry said.
Genna Martin / The Herald Patricia Flajole (right) and son Pat look out over a flooded Highway 530 east of the Oso mudslide area on March 23, the day after the slide. The Flajole family owns a cabin just east of the slide area. The water, which had backed up because of river blockage, has mostly receded since then.
By Bill Sheets, Chris Winters, Jerry Cornfield and Rikki King, The Herald
Nearly three weeks after the devastating landslide in Oso, discussion of the fate of Highway 530 is beginning in earnest.
A series of community meetings has been scheduled for next week to gather input and discuss options for the daunting task of rebuilding the 1-mile stretch of highway that was smothered by the March 22 mudslide.
The section has been closed to the public since then, severing Darrington’s direct lifeline to Arlington and the I-5 corridor.
State and Snohomish County officials have been discussing with families of victims the delicate matter of digging out the highway while more people and belongings likely are still buried in the mud.
To date, 36 victims of the mudslide have been confirmed dead, with county officials releasing the names of three more victims Thursday.
Eight people are still missing.
“It’s kind of sacred ground for them and we want to make sure we’re going in there in the most respectful way possible,” said Travis Phelps, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
In the meantime, officials are also beginning to look at the longer-term economic effect of the slide. Residents are deeply concerned about the effects on Darrington’s economy and culture if the town remains cut off for months.
“Of course we need that road open. That’s our lifeline to the outside world,” said Kevin Ashe, a part-owner of the Darrington IGA.
The only other major route into town is on Highway 20 through Skagit County, which turns a 45-minute drive to Everett into a two-hour detour.
Crews so far have removed most of the mud from a few hundred feet of Highway 530 on the western edge of the slide area.
“We’ve made some progress but not a heck of a lot,” Phelps said.
Because much of the highway is still buried, it’s too early to tell whether the road will be salvageable, he said.
“I’m sure some of it’s been damaged and some of it’s not,” Phelps said.
On the east side, part of the highway is still under water where the North Fork Stillaguamish River pooled up behind the slide. Even if the road can be repaired, the river’s ultimate course through the altered landscape will play a large part in determining if the road can remain in its current location, Phelps said.
If the road has to be rebuilt, topography of the surrounding area will be a factor, he said. Some steep hills are located south of the current highway right-of-way.
Engineers have begun studying possible routes, he said. When these become more developed, they’ll be shared with the public at later meetings.
“We’ve started looking at the terrain,” Phelps said.
Because of all these factors, it’s impossible to estimate when the highway could reopen or how much it might cost, he said.
The economic damage isn’t limited to just the highway. Damage to houses and other properties that were destroyed in the slide area is estimated at $6.77 million, according to a county assessor’s report released Thursday. About $919,000 of that was from the flooding.
More than 34 houses were destroyed and at least 10 manufactured homes, in addition to vacant lots, camping sites and other kinds of buildings, according to the report.
Because of the extent of the slide and the flooding, some areas have not been assessed yet, especially east of the slide near where a berm is being built.
While the federal government likely will reimburse the costs of rebuilding Highway 530, the longer-term recovery period is likely to come out of local pockets.
The economic hit to Darrington could be serious due to the reduced access and increased costs of getting to the town.
One worry, for example, is at what point people who commute into Darrington for jobs, or those who commute from Darrington to Arlington or the rest of the county, will decide the hassle of the commute isn’t worth the job.
In looking toward the longer term, the Puget Sound Regional Council has recommended that $5 million in federal funding be used to support economic recovery in Darrington.
The PSRC, an intergovernmental body that distributes about $240 million in federal transportation funding annually, will perform an unusual workaround to free up money that can contribute to Darrington’s recovery.
The PSRC’s federal money is earmarked for specific transportation projects, but some of those projects won’t come to fruition this year, leaving the PSRC money without a designated project. Snohomish County identified an ongoing project — the North Road project between Lynnwood and Mill Creek — that was funded with $9.8 million in local funds on top of $3.2 million in federal money.
By directing $5 million more in federal money to the North Road project, the PSRC will free up the same amount in county money from that project, which can in turn be redirected to projects in the Darrington area.
“County money is much more flexible than these federal dollars,” PSRC spokesman Rick Olson said.
The county money will then be targeted at projects that will have an economic benefit for Darrington.
Darrington’s plan to add curbs, gutters, sidewalks and a storm drainage system to Fir Street has been identified as one immediate need. Other projects that might be considered are upgrading the Whitehorse Trail or more street improvements in the town itself.
These projects would not be eligible for disaster funds, but by directing more county money to them, they would have a positive economic impact and take a little of the burden off Darrington. An upgraded Whitehorse Trail, for example, could be a tourist draw for the town, Olson said.
The issue moves to the PSRC’s executive committee next week, where it stands a good chance of passing.
“I think the PSRC has a good history of counties supporting each other, especially in times of need like this,” said Snohomish County Councilman Dave Somers, who sits on the committee.
These smaller measures may help soften the impact of the closure of Highway 530, but it will by no means eliminate it.
After the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge on I-5 last May, a temporary span was in place less than a month later.
Highway 530 is an altogether different animal, Phelps said. Some kind of temporary road may be considered, but it is still too soon to make that decision.
“Here we have a much bigger emergency response underway,” he said.
There’s no one federal agency to turn to for help. Money could potentially come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Highway Administration and others, Phelps said.
“It’s going to be kind of an ongoing discussion,” Phelps said.
Meetings
Snohomish County and the state Department of Transportation have scheduled three meetings to discuss the situation regarding Highway 530, which was blocked by the March 22 landslide.
*7-9 p.m. Monday, April 14, at the Darrington Community Center, 570 Sauk Ave.;
*7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, at Oso Community Chapel, 22318 Highway 530;
*6-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in the Main Hall at the Stillaguamish Senior Center, 18308 Smokey Point Blvd., Arlington.
